VRA to construct 8-megawatts solar photovoltaic power plant in Kaleo

The Volta River Authority (VRA) has secured funding from KFW, a German Development Bank to construct 8-megawatts Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Plant in Kaleo in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region.

The PV plant when completed, will harness the renewable resource of the solar energy to generate electricity without the utilization of fossil fuels.

The PV plant will avoid greenhouse gas emission and diversifies the electricity generation mix of the Republic of Ghana.

In a local stakeholders hearing in Kaleo at the St. Basilide Vocational School on the 2nd of November, 2017, the authority has disclosed that it has already undertaken the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project and has also secured an Environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The project is expected to go to tender before the end of 2017 and construction to begin in March, 2018 and will have to be completed in nine months period.

For her part, the DCE for Nadowli-Kaleo, Katherine T. Lankono assured the people of Kaleo that they will witness reduction in their electricity tariffs in 2018.

According to the DCE the next mandate of the NPP government is to reduce the prices which take several forms.

Ghanaians have been expecting a reduction in their electricity tariffs when Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the 2017 budget.

The high expectations for a reduction came from promises made by the then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo during the heat of the 2016 election campaign.

Five months into government, the Akufo-Addo led administration abolished the excise duty on petroleum and a reduction of special petroleum tax rate from 17.5 percent to 15 percent but that is yet to affect the cost of electricity.

But the DCE said the installation of the power plant will help businesses in the Nadowli-Kaleo District as the district is now becoming a business hub in the country.

She thanked the management of the VRA for identifying the Nadowli-Kaleo District as one of the beneficiaries of the project.

She also appealed to the Chief and people of the Kaleo Traditional Area to cooperate with the Authority when the project kicks start somewhere in 2018.

Madame Katrine also appealed to the VRA to engage people in the district as means of providing them jobs when the project commences.